The Genetic Architecture of Maize Flowering Time

作者：Edward S. Buckler, James B. Holland, Peter J. Bradbury, Charlotte B. Acharya, Patrick J. Brown, Chris Browne, Elhan S. Ersoz, Sherry Flint-García, A.R. Garcia, Jeffrey C. Glaubitz, M. M. Goodman, Carlos Harjes, Kate Guill, Dallas E. Kroon, Sara J. Larsson, Nicholas Lepak, Huihui Li, Sharon E. Mitchell, Gaël Pressoir, Jason A. Peiffer, Marco Oropeza Rosas, Torbert Rocheford, M. Cinta Romay, Susan Romero, Stella Salvo, Hector Sanchez Villeda, H. Sofia da Silva, Qi Sun, Feng Tian, Narasimham Upadyayula, Doreen Ware, Heather E. Yates, Jianming Yu, Zhiwu Zhang, Stephen Kresovich, Michael D. McMullen · 发表于：Science · 年份：2009 · DOI：10.1126/science.1174276 · 被引用次数：1534 · 研究领域：Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals、Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock、Genetics and Plant Breeding

Flowering time is a complex trait that controls adaptation of plants to their local environment in the outcrossing species Zea mays (maize). We dissected variation for flowering time with a set of 5000 recombinant inbred lines (maize Nested Association Mapping population, NAM). Nearly a million plants were assayed in eight environments but showed no evidence for any single large-effect quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Instead, we identified evidence for numerous small-effect QTLs shared among families; however, allelic effects differ across founder lines. We identified no individual QTLs at which allelic effects are determined by geographic origin or large effects for epistasis or environmental interactions. Thus, a simple additive model accurately predicts flowering time for maize, in contrast to the genetic architecture observed in the selfing plant species rice and Arabidopsis.